John Maynard Keynes

Born in Cambridge in 1883, he studied at Eton and then at King's College, Cambridge, where he later became a fellow. He worked in the British civil service, advised the government during and after the First World War, and went on to become one of the most influential economists of the 20th century.

Keynes is especially associated with The Economic Consequences of the Peace and The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money. In those works, he challenged older economic assumptions and argued that weak demand could leave economies stuck with high unemployment, making active government spending and policy intervention necessary.

He was also deeply involved in public life beyond academic economics, including financial work for the British government and major international negotiations during the Second World War. When he died in 1946, he had already changed how governments, central banks, and ordinary readers thought about booms, slumps, and the role of the state in economic life.